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Waning moon, Fred and Vineyridge, so very sorry to hear about your hardship. And I use that word not to minimize it but to try to encompass the totality of it. Not having power has an impact on every task of the day and doubles or triples the effort needed to do routine chores.

I admit to being terribly spoiled in this regard. From spending winters on a farm where loss of power meant hauling water from the brook for the cows (and they drink LOTS of water) we are now in a situation where two more generators will provide power for the final two heated/plumbed living quarters on the farm. We have two residents on oxygen generators (machines that concentrate oxygen from room air), so they need power 24/7, and have had infants on property as well, so we have invested in generators.

BUT, my electrician is great and if he is upgrading a generator for someone and the old one is functional, he calls me: I give the old one a good home. Also, he has begun installing load shedding switches which allow us to prioritize electrical needs and therefore have smaller generators do the job. (I think I have that right: the technology is new to me and I'm still learning!) All of the generators run on propane.

Last thought, Waning Moon, can you hook up enough hoses to go from the pond/ brook to your barn? If it's downhill, it'll siphon, and when you're done just pul out the "wet" end of the hose to drain it.

Best of luck to all. Hang in there and send updates to let us know you're alright.

They don't call me frugal for nothing.
Proud and achy member of the Eventing Grannies clique.

Why is it said that you can't use an oven to heat your kitchen? I heard recently that it could cause an explosion. This week my gas oven was going full blast for seven hours while I was cooking our Christmas dinner and we're still fine. An oven is designed to stay on for hours to cook food so why couldn't you turn your oven on for a couple of hours three or four times a day for heat if your electricity is out?

The problem is that many of the newer gas ovens run differently than the old kind with the pilot light and they require power off the grid to be safe. I remember asking about the pilotless gas ovens and the salesman couldn't tell me whether they would work without electric. They are all set up with electric to run the clocks and what not.

The back feeding the house with the generator is the way I used to do it in my old house. The heavy duty plug from the generator goes in the dryer outlet. It is REALLY important to turn off the main breaker!!!! This prevents the power from the generator from going out onto the main lines feeding your house.

First thing DH does is turn off that main breaker. His father was an electrical engineer for the local power company for many years. We also had a friend who was a lineman. We don't want to fry any lineman.
We backfeed through DH's compressor plug it is in the garage and is a 220. Yes the generator actually sits outside the garage.

Oh, well, clearly you're not thoroughly indoctrinated to COTH yet, because finger pointing and drawing conclusions are the cornerstones of this great online community. (Tidy Rabbit)

When I was young we had a range with a touch hole, that was where you held the match until the burner lit. You could turn that thing on and fill the house up with gas if you felt like it. The burner was regulated so as you turned the knob with the degrees marked on it you'd come pretty close to the temp. Before that my grandma used to put a test piece in the oven to see if it was slow or fast, she didn't believe the knobs.

Later on we had a camper stove that we got for free and I can tell you why - it had a pilot and used five gallons of propane just keeping the thing lit, and it had a thermostatically regulated burner, that would turn on and off to get the heat you wanted. About half the time the gas would come on and the pilot wouldn't light it soon enough, it'd go BAM, blow the door open and put soot all over whatever you were cooking in the stove. I switched to covered casseroles and finally got a new oven with the older continuously operating regulated burners.

WaningMoon, if it comes to it make the mare and the donkey go to the brook instead of lugging buckets for them. I used to watch the pony and donkey next door get loose and go down the road to the creek to water themselves - leastways that's the only reason I could figure for them to walk right past my house, right past our horses, right past our good grass and go down to the bottom of the hill, and come back about 15 minutes later.
Donkeys aren't stupid. Lead him over and show him the way and he'll lead the mare for you. They'll come home for food, although they may raise cain out in the meadow running around if they've been shut up.
If you have snow you can bring it inside and let it melt and carry that a shorter distance, but please don't wear yourself out when they have feet of their own to carry them to the water.

Do I just happen to have a generator that is very expensive to operate or what? I don't see how anyone can afford to run one. This one has a bout an hour left and after that we will just make do. I was trying to keep the light on downstairs because I grow plantain, dandelion and clover for 'lil bun. I even have some dandelion blossoming down there. I know. But I love her.

Walk the horses to water? I have several serious spine conditions. I have very little feeling in my right leg. I have total foot drop also. I fall regularly on good ground. The vet brings an assistant now when he comes if I need to trot a horse because the foot that drags may cause me to fall and I don't like that while leading her. It happened once this summer and I find it scary. We have a foot or a little more snow covered by two inches of ice. It is now heavily snowing again and the trees have started crashing down all around again. Power co is struggling as more lines keep coming down. The mare breaks through the ice when she walks but the donkey doesn't and neither do I. So no, the going really is not good enough to lead them to water or I would. Just got 8 5gal buckets filled and in here. Am heating water on the woodstove to take out to the barn now.

And thankfully we got our phone back last night. There is no cell service here at all. I am very out there. Cold hollow mts of northern vt. Neighbors are very few and far between. But as long as the land line holds I can get by. Otherwise I get very scared. I am a insulin dependent diabetic and sometimes I crash. I sometimes break out in an incredible sweat, can't talk, can't do anything, and twice the ambulance has had to be called. I get very scared when this happens. I don't know why. I am very tough. Not scared by much. But that gets me every time. My Blood glucose has gotten as low as 34. My heart will start pounding. I get afraid Im going to die I guess. I don't know. Someone said fear is a part of a low BS spell. It sure does it for me.

Ppl think I should get out of here. Sorry. My animals have always come first and always will. They are the reason I live. It will all be fine. jUst makes for tough times. Kind of lonely too I guess. Thought Id come online as I haven't for months and see what the rest of the world was up to. And who was suffering through the ice storm.

Thanks for words of encouragement and your ideas. I won't have internet until we get power back as I am not going to try to buy more gas, it is just ridiculous. Got a few things to do before it runs out so will get off of here. We do not need this damn snow storm today. Our local news channel says a dusting to two inches. We have already gotten 5 inches today. In one of those areas where it just doesn't stop till spring.

WaningMoon, I wish you would have someone checking in on you every couple of days. It would be doubly hard if you fell down lugging water from the brook, had a diabetic episode, and these animals that are your life died of thirst or starvation.

$70 is 20 gallons of fuel, we ran our Honda about 8 hours a day and used less than a gallon an hour. We NEVER ran it 24 hours, and up here if it's cold enough we put all the fridge goods on the porch and skip the gen entirely.

I understood that going to the creek was dangerous for you, and what I meant was to take the donkey to the creek one time, and thereafter to lead him across the road and let them both go to water on their own. What I didn't know was how busy the road was, whether they are the type that would cooperate in such a venture, etc..

Best of luck to you and everybody dealing with weather related hardship right now.

The problem is that many of the newer gas ovens run differently than the old kind with the pilot light and they require power off the grid to be safe. I remember asking about the pilotless gas ovens and the salesman couldn't tell me whether they would work without electric. They are all set up with electric to run the clocks and what not.

Yeah that is true, everything has electric attached to it now a days.
Most have electronic ignition so you just never have to light them by hand.
The more advancements there are the harder it is when we do not have them.
Oh give me the simple life!

"you can only ride the drama llama so hard before it decides to spit in your face." Caffeinated.

Frugal - thank you for your kind thoughts. We are up and running now (thank goodness) and I am so grateful to the hardworking hydro workers for their efforts.

Waning moon - really, really concerned about you. Not just in this situation with the ice storm, but overall, with your serious health issues and your isolation.
I understand you love your animals, but as someone else already said, you are no good to them if anything happens to you. Do you have neighbours who can call in on you? Anyone who can help you water the animals? Please stay safe.

I think WaningMoon is off line based on her comments, but if anyone can think of a way to get it there, I have an old propane generator I will happily donate to her. I can't lift it and I don't have a pickup either, but AFAIK it works. It'll never get there in time for this episode, but maybe it can stave off future problems. Fred, I don't think we could get it through Customs to get to you!

They don't call me frugal for nothing.
Proud and achy member of the Eventing Grannies clique.

We are working on solar energy. We think we will stay connected to the grid, but solar will eventually become our primary source. You have to set it up right though - on the south and west sides and set at a steep enough slope so snow slides off. We also live in a hail prone area so our concern will be protecting the panels with plexiglass.

I think WaningMoon is off line based on her comments, but if anyone can think of a way to get it there, I have an old propane generator I will happily donate to her. I can't lift it and I don't have a pickup either, but AFAIK it works. It'll never get there in time for this episode, but maybe it can stave off future problems. Fred, I don't think we could get it through Customs to get to you!

Thank you for thinking of us Annie -we have a generator on the way, soon I hope.
That is very kind of you to offer it to WM. I have no idea of the distance involved from you to her though, but it would be great if we were able to help her get something in place before next time.

We are working on solar energy. We think we will stay connected to the grid, but solar will eventually become our primary source. You have to set it up right though - on the south and west sides and set at a steep enough slope so snow slides off. We also live in a hail prone area so our concern will be protecting the panels with plexiglass.

rodawn, one of the things I just can't understand is why all the new builds out in the country don't have solar in place.
Our area is now full of McMansions and not one has solar. Everyone is on the grid, everyone has a propane tank.
When we moved to this house, we investigated retro-fitting our house for solar. The cost then (for us) was prohibitive, but I wish we could have found a way to do it.
I keep thinking if only I could put the barn on solar, and get solar tank heaters - it would 'generate' a whole lot of peace of mind.

We're pretty sure that we'd need generator backup even if we did the solar because the battery storage systems aren't great, and power outages tend to take place during storms/ winter/ cloudy periods therefore less solar production. But I agree with you that all new construction should be solar ready, especially in the south. There is just no excuse down there!

They don't call me frugal for nothing.
Proud and achy member of the Eventing Grannies clique.

At our old house (only 2 miles away), we lost power on a semi-regular basis....old, above ground, lines, old trees that neither the neighbors nor National Grid ever trimmed, not a main road so restoration was slow. Most of the time if was just 1/2 a day to 36 hours, but in the last five years, we'd lost it for 7-10 days twice! Ugh.

The short outages didn't matter much, as we still had water (even hot water) and had a natural gas stove top to cook on. No heat (no stoves or fireplaces) didn't matter for just a day or two. Some good flashlights and a cooler with ice for perishables and it was not a big problem. The week plus outages!! We had to leave, we could not stay in the unheated house in the winter after a few days. Fortunately, we had relatives with power to go visit, so we'd shut off the water, empty all the pipes and go somewhere else.

Our new house is slightly better set up. We have a wood stove and two fireplaces, though the cooktop is electric. We are on a well now, but there is a Gentran switch already installed. We have a not so powerful generator, but it should be enough to run the well pump, though we haven't had to try it yet. We have a propane grill we could cook outside on. There is a 250 gallon hot tub in the house, that could easily be toilet flushing, and even bathing, water, as the tub won't run without electric anyway. Can't drink it (neither can pets) as it's treated, of course. I keep bottled water for drinking/cooking, just in case the generator fails and we can't get water out of the well.

BTW, I LOVE these LED lanterns. We have several of them and they seem to run forever on one set of batteries and throw off enough light to keep a whole room decently lit.

Oh, and here's a hint...keep cash on hand and your car's gas tank full if you are expecting a major outage. During our two very long ones (ice storm and the "Halloween Storm"), the whole town, and surrounding towns were out for most of a week. We had to drive about 10 miles before we could find a gas station whose pumps were working. Local ATMs didn't work and the local stores (those that were open) didn't have working credit/debit card machines...so, it was a strictly cash economy. The ice storm, no one had any warning, so I wasn't prepared. It was two days before we could drive a car out (trees down in the road). Fortunately, the local convenience store was only a mile walk away and he had a generator. Since he knew me, he gave me ice/milk/bread on credit, knowing I'd pay him back once I could get to a working ATM. The "Halloween Storm" we knew was coming, so I had cash hidden in the house and a full tank of gas.

I have power. It just barely came on. I am so excited. There are ppl are around losing it again though. It is STILL snowing. NOw we are getting wind. They said we will likely lose it again. I have so much to do but will come back in a few hours with some pics. I will explain why the horses can not water themselves, well, the pics will show why easily. Thank you to everyone for your concern. I will be back . Unless of course the power goes out again right away and I truly hope that is not the case. Lost most of my vegetables, cellar just too cold without the lights. Off to fill water containers and see what I can salvage downstairs.

Very glad to hear that WM. How about saving up for a large stock tank or two, that's how we water our bunnies is by dipping out of a 100 gallon stock tank, so even in the heat of summer when all the hoses are clear we have a reservoir that will last a few days if the piped water quits before we have to talk to the neighbors about using their pond, or drive down to the creek.
Your bun will like alfalfa cubes if you can get them, about 15 bucks for 40 lbs and the horses eat them too.
Hope you get all the important stuff done before it quits again, good luck!